How to Cook It

Here’s another one of those things that’s ridiculously easy to make at home: Mayonnaise. Maybe homemade mayonnaise is or isn’t cheaper than what you can find at the store. But you control what is in it. And you won’t find it fresher or more delicious anywhere else besides your own kitchen. How does it work? …

If you’re used to buying ready-to-drink (RTD) or instant iced tea, you’ll be amazed at the difference in freshness and flavor once you learn how to make iced tea at home. You might call it iced tea or ice tea, or just plain cold tea. In fact, I usually enjoy mine at room temperature. Having …

Homemade beef bone broth. Like my chicken stock recipe, my beef stock recipe is easy, cheap and supremely nourishing — and free of extraneous ingredients and steps. Just like homemade soup stock should be. Since the dawn of the human race, we’ve been cooking bones to get at their goodness, including the marrow, and the gelatin …

Ghee, an essential ingredient in much Indian cookery, is butter with the milk solids and water removed. Pure dairy fat! Just heat butter gently, and the components will separate. Then strain. That is the essential ghee recipe. Ghee is a type of clarified butter. The difference between ghee and regular clarified butter is that ghee …

Freezing tomatoes is an excellent way to put them up. The method of frozen tomatoes I’ve come up with is ridiculously easy, and space efficient, too. Using the tomatoes is also super-easy, especially if you follow my advice on how to make your frozen tomatoes recipe-friendly with my original portioning tricks. For years my main …

The first time I ever tried to make my own cole slaw it was crisp, balanced, fresh – and wrong. What was missing? A certain je ne sais quoi: a refreshing, bracing note that was herbal yet earthy. But what could it be? After some investigation and experimentation, I found out quoi: Celery seed. Just a half-teaspoon of …

Here is the ultimate recipe for making your own chicken stock (also known as bone broth) from scratch. Unlike most recipes I’ve found, this one does not call for you to buy a chicken, or chicken parts, or anything you didn’t already have. It doesn’t require any prepping of vegetables, or assembling of herbs. My …

Even in the sticky heat of summer, warm weather mornings are generally cool, green and lovely. Why waste a minute of it inside? Bring breakfast outdoors—cook it on your grill. You’ll get extra time to savor the natural beauty outdoors. Where we live, in Wisconsin, we have but a fleeting temperate season and we want …

This basic cooked greens recipe can be used for any kind of greens. Collards, chard, turnip greens, beet greens, spinach, kale, mustard greens — you name it. Each of these greens has its own distinctive taste and texture, and each can wake up a plate as an elegant complement to a main protein. One of …